Looking to Reduce Revenue Cycle Costs? Revamp Your Patient Payment Approach

Antiquated billing and payment processes are driving up paper and postage costs for health care revenue cycle departments. They also put unnecessary stress on short-staffed revenue cycle teams and call centers, lead to higher-than-necessary days in accounts receivable (A/R), and contribute to unnecessary environmental waste. 

These are just a few reasons why hospitals and health systems are leaning into digital options for bill notification and payment.

At a time when 78% of health care revenue cycle leaders are exploring automation to increase efficiency, there are signs that consumers would be open to a more digital patient financial experience. A recent survey found 1 in 4 patients would use a digital wallet to pay their health care bill, although most currently use credit and debit cards for payment. Meanwhile, 16% say one of the biggest difficulties they encounter in the care process is viewing an invoice, setting up a payment plan, or making a payment.

These are pain points that health care revenue cycle departments must address if they wish to strengthen the financial experience while reducing costs and pressures on staff. 

Here are 3 ways health care organizations have dramatically improved efficiency and collections by exploring digital options for bill notifications and payment.

#1 Give your mobile payment option the feel of a new payment channel. 

For instance, when patients receive a text notification that payment is due, avoid links that send them to the patient portal, where they must remember their password to access their bill information. Instead, invest in a mobile-first experience where patients may view their bill and pay it directly from the text, without the inconvenience of connecting to a portal, downloading an app, or locating their account number.
At Baptist Health in Jacksonville, Florida, the move to a digitally oriented payment channel in 2019 enabled the 6-hospital health system to generate more than 1 million dollars per month in self-pay collections via text-based communications. Today, more than 21% of patient responsibility is paid through the mobile channel. 

“Patients rave about it,” says Susan Higginbotham, director of revenue cycle for Baptist Health. “It was like nothing they had seen before.”

#2 Develop a suite of digital-first patient financial solutions. 

Mobile lends itself well to real-time bill notification and expansive options for payment, including digital wallets like Apple, Google Pay, or Venmo, but these aren’t the only payment functions that can shift to a digital-first approach. Innovative health care revenue cycle departments look for ways to take pressure off call centers by implementing chat functions to help answer consumers’ most common payment questions. They also increase self-service options for patient account management, such as by allowing patients to self-enroll in payment plans from the privacy of home. This not only speeds the enrollment process—especially when applications are prepopulated with the patient’s verified information—but also eliminates the apprehension some patients feel in discussing their financial circumstances and asking for help.
At Mount Sinai Health System in New York, where the primary goal of text-based communications has been to ease pressure on revenue cycle staff and resources, building out digital options for account management led to a 20% decrease in call volume and a 28% reduction in paper-based communications. At a large academic health system, where all patients qualify for low- or no-interest payment plans, patients can move from one type of plan to another based on their financial needs. This ensures financial challenges—including those resulting from the pandemic—do not prevent people from seeking care.

#3 Look for opportunities to provide highly personalized digital experiences. 

“The US health care system has Star Wars technology delivered by a Fred Flintstone vehicle,” Stephen Klasko, MD, CEO, Jefferson Health, shared in “The Modern Patient Experience” podcast. 

In revenue cycle, antiquated service delivery results in impersonal, highly paper-based experiences. At Jefferson Health in Philadelphia, digital bill notification and payment processes are tightly integrated with the health system’s digital front door. This results in a modern, retail-like approach that customizes communications and payment options according to the patient’s preferences—down to the type of communication received. It also allows patients to combine their accounts into a single bill for ease of payment and account management. Jefferson Health also uses data analytics to segment the types of service offerings that are communicated to patients, from diabetes management to cardiac care.

A More Modern Mindset for Payment

It’s clear that consumers’ preference for digital payment is here to stay, and health care payment is no exception. Now is the time to consider what the desire for digital bill notification looks like in your community and how the shift to a more modern approach could benefit your patients, your team, and your organization.